Tell Me - Are Frog's Balls Better With A White or A Red? photo

Martin Ranch Wine Bottling Event

Well not much unless you are at the Martin Ranch wine bottling event with me last weekend. They sell wine to people and let them participate in wine making by bottling the wine. After bottling our share we sat down for a snack when I saw the Frog Balls in a jar on the table. If you can see the label closely, you will note that in the jar is a batch of pickled gournet atomic brussles sprouts (pictured below right).

Some of the folks at the table tried them and found them to be quite spicy. Now maybe Michelle Obama will frown on my skipping my greens but I just couldn't do it.

Back to the wine bottling event.

The way this works is that the final blended wine is in a storage container. All the good wineries transfer wine by gravity, instead of pumping it. The forklift is used to lift the wine to the desired height. (see below)

New, clean and empty wine bottles are placed on device that fills the bottles with nitrogen. The bottles are then filled at the “cow”. The cow is how the wine is transported to the bottles for filling. See pictures below.

The cork is then inserted into the bottle with this special machine. See below where a bottle is being corked. I understand that this is called a corker, but after all I was tasting as I went along. The cap is then “spun” on the bottle with this special machine. The bottle is then cleaned and label is placed on the bottle.

The more organized and prepared participants made their own labels and placed their own name on their bottles.

These are made for personal use and not resold due to the regulatory constraints.

(Pictured above the cow machines where the bottles are filled, the blue corking device and the spinner.)

Wow this turned out to be one of those perfect days, that we never get in February by the way. The weather was gorgeous. There was a really good band playing Eagles and other songs. Superb wine, good music and good company (see below - from left to right, Pam, Pauline, Lori, Dawn, Jacki and that's me on the right). Dan Martin was actually sampling a wine that had just won Double Gold at recent wine competions. There were multiple wines that won this award at this event.

I provided my email address to be kept apprised of future events. I am going back (whether invited or not, so if you hear of anything let me know)! And...if you are looking for a home wine cellar, wine processing or heck just heating or AC in your home or work, call us - Cold Craft, Inc. 408.374.7292